Milan Furniture Fair April 21, 2008

The dominant theme of the most directional pieces in Milan this year was survivalism, and how designers can help us (and themselves) to navigate the perils of contemporary life. The catalysts are the familiar problems of recession, environmental crisis and design’s neurosis about its role in a saturated consumer culture.The survivalists (as we’ll call them) responded by adopting a rugged, improvisational approach to design and a slightly forlorn, Goth-inspired style with dark colors and fractured shapes. They made the most of scarce materials by recycling or inventing them, often in objects with multiple functions.

This piece titled, “Evolution lovers’ seat,” designed and made by the young Spanish designer Nacho Carbonell, made its first appearance at the 2008 Milan Furniture Fair.

“Chinese Objects Object,” shown here, which was designed by Studio Maarten Baas for Contrasts Gallery.

The Dutch ceramics company, Royal Tichelaar Makkum, commissioned new flower pyramids from the Dutch designers Jurgen Bey, Studio Job, Hella Jongerius and Alexander von Slobbe. The pyramids are to be exhibited at the Moss design gallery in New York next month. This is Jurgen Bey’s design.

One of the dominant themes in contemporary design is for designers to develop objects that propose, rather than dictate, solutions to the practical problems of daily life by acting as “works in progress” to be completed by the people who use them. A young Israeli designer, Shay Alkalay, has produced such an object in “Stack,” a collection of individual drawers that can be piled on top of each other to create towers of different shapes and sizes, and in different combinations of colors.

Designed by Trent Jansen for the Dutch furniture group Moooi, the “Pregnant Chair” is intended to symbolize the relationship between a mother and her child.

“Enlaced Antibodi” was designed as an outdoor chair by Patricia Urquiola for the Italian furniture manufacturer Moroso. The metal structure of the chair is enlaced with colored PVC strings.

One way in which the European furniture industry is battling back against growing competition from China is by playing the history card. Porro, an Italian manufacturer, has reissued vintage design by reproducing the “Cubovo” lacquered wood and glass trolley, originally designed in 1962 by Bruno Munari, one of Italy’s most gifted designers and design theorists.

This “Globe chandelier,” was designed by Studio Job for Swarovski Crystal Palace.

The inspiration for the “Bouquet chairs” came from an installation created from some 30,000 paper tissues by the Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka for the New York showroom of the Italian furniture manufacturer Moroso. Yoshioka reworked the concept using fabric to devise a contemporary – and very poetic – version of old-fashioned rag furnishings. Each of the hundreds of fabric squares is sewn individually to look like petals on the flower-like shape of the seat.